I think this is one of those cases where the joke is exactly what it appears to be, no less and no more. The former Surgeon General is trying to sit down at a table reserved for generals and finds the reception rather cold. To be fair to the cartoonist, the joke isn’t THAT out of date. Mortisugu only left the job at the beginning of October. I wasn’t even aware there WAS a new Surgeon General. (His replacement doesn’t even have a Wikipedia entry yet!)

I hope the former Surgeon General clips and saves this cartoon. I can’t imagine there’ll be too many more for his scrapbook.

I met the acting SG, he was very nice, he was an admiral, and often, admirals outrank generals, as there are no “one star” admirals in the USNavy, but there are Bigadiers in the other branches. Admirals start with 2 stars, but some are called “upperhalf” and some are called “lowerhalf” but all outrank the one starred generals.

Also, this may refer to the fact that some officers are “line” and some are “staff” Line officers are more military, and came up throught the officer ranks and serve as commanders and whatnot, while staff officers are medical and legal and obtain their rank on different things.

The surgeon general is a staff officer by merit of being a doctor, but he is also on staff by merit of serving on the Chiefs of Staff.

As a furriner (Canadian), perhaps its not my place to comment, but WTH? Even a “Rear Admiral – Lower Half” has a better claim to the title General than, say, former Attorney General John Ashcroft who was called “General Ashcroft” by some. If I were a Naval grade O-7, I’d rather be called Commodore. At least it isn’t “Rear Admiral – Left Half”!